When Three Days Grace released Transit Of Venus in October of 2012, the album immediately started gaining traction with radio-friendly songs like “Chalk Outline” and “The High Road.” The future was looking bright for the Canadian hard rock quartet as they prepared to embark upon a co-headlining tour with fellow hard rockers – Shinedown – when frontman, Adam Gontier, shocked everyone by announcing his departure from the band.
It was first reported that Gontier’s departure was due to a non-life threatening illness, and speculation swirled that his drug addiction had once again reared its ugly head. He eventually released a statement that he was, in fact, still clean and sober, and that his departure was due to creative differences in the writing process.
Not wanting to disappoint their fanbase, Three Days Grace called upon bassist, Brad Walst’s brother, Matt (My Darkest Days), to replace Gontier for the tour with Shinedown. In March of this year, he was named the permanent replacement for Gontier.
Three Days Grace is currently in the studio working on their first album with Walst as the frontman. The band has recently released the first track with the new lineup, entitled “Painkiller.”
Replacing the voice of an established band is never easy, but if “Painkiller” is any indication of what’s to come from Three Days Grace, it appears that this will be a musically seamless transition. In fact, with all of the band members on the same page, it is quite likely that Three Days Grace’s ascension in the hard rock genre will continue at an even faster pace.
“Painkiller” picks up where the hit songs from Transit Of Venus left off…crunchy riffs, melodic verses and an incredibly catchy chorus. The only noticeable difference between “Painkiller” and the hit songs off of Transit Of Venus is that it captures the band’s more raw and aggressive sound from their early years, which is somewhat ironic given that Gontier left the band because he thought that they were becoming too focused on writing radio hits instead of writing songs from the heart.
“Painkiller” is available for download on iTunes.
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